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Your email blast stated that "Snooth has introduced the first consumer-driven wine awards," and that is not entirely accurate. Master of Wine Tim Hanni has been helping orchestrate the Consumer Wine Awards (http://www.consumerwineawards.com) for at least the last three years. This is another attempt to get actual consumers' opinions on a wide variety of wines.

Also, a couple questions: how were wines chosen for inclusion in your awards voting process? And what are the criteria for determining the categories (ie, price points for "value," "premium," and "luxury" wines?

This whole site is a major joke.
Gazella Vinho Verde is an industrial product, hardly qualifying as wine.
A kind of beverage that only low range restaurants and supermakets sell.
If you want to try and enjoy Vinho Verde, you NEED to look elsewhere.
This site is basically a "pay and I will talk about it" venture.
Also, for instance, on another country which is not mine but of which I have some knowledge "wine-wise", to put Marques de Riscal Reserva at the top of "Spanish Premium Reds" is another incredible showing of how poor this site is.
Marques de Riscal Reserva is a pretty decent wine, a staple of Spanish wine industry, but hardly a TOP premium wine.

Bacalhoa Tinto D'Anfora... please... another wine almost listed to please a major wine producer pushing an average/decent product...
I know that the PT wine industry has a knack of being completely controlled outside Portugal by major players who push their average wines and this is another major example.
At least, a few months ago GdP was promoting a very decent red from Alentejo called Herdade Monte da Cal, an actually good value for money red.

I am supposed to believe in your FAQ? I read an article a few months ago by GdP about Portuguese wines not to be missed which listed "Dão Cardeal" and "Casal Garcia" as wines not to be missed.
Any Portuguese individual remotely educated in wine is bound to laugh (or cry) at the mere suggestion that Dão Cardeal is anything more than one level above coin polisher and Casal Garcia is little more than an alcoholic beverage (no vintage, no variation, just an industrial product).
There were other examples on that article, but fortunately I forgot about them! But these were the worse.

Vava, the point of these selections is not to create a definitive list of the best wines, it's actually the opposite, to let consumers decide. You live in Portugal, is that correct? Well, maybe that explains why you have a better selection of Portuguese wines than we do, but would you really prefer that I just ignore Portugal here or would you then write a letter complaining that we are ignoring Portugal.

Many of these wines were nominated by our users, they are the one's who will decide the winners, not me.

And as far as your pay to play allegations go, that's just stupid and completely unfounded. We have taken zero dollars for anyone for placement in the People's Voice Awards.

If you want to be productive and support Portugal's better producer stop complaining, vote for some that you see here or nominate you own favorites.

OK, now that I got your direct attention, could you please reply me to the following (I will accept that my allegations may have been unfounded in relation to this particular segment of your site, so I apologize):

How could you select "Dão Cardeal" and "Casal Garcia" as Portuguese wines not to be missed?

What was your criteria? Please answer this because I am sure that, even with a poor selection of Portuguese wines in the US - which I acknowledge to be a problem created by our own deeply flawed and scarcely independent wine promotion institutions - you would be bound to find dozens of wines available in the US which are much, much, much better than those two.

The fact is that after that particular article, I suspect of ALL information coming from this site.
I still find it a source of information, but I do not put any substantial faith in its accuracy or independence.

As far as wines not to be missed. I live in New York city, arguably the greatest wine city, for retail sales, in the world, and I often struggle to find quality Portuguese wines. They are not to be missed because they are national brands, and getting people interested in Portuguese wines means getting them interested in the wines that they can buy.

Both "Dão Cardeal" and "Casal Garcia" are very popular and well distributed here in the states and if getting a people to try those wines, regardless of your opinion of them, means more people will explore and support the wines of Portugal then that is what I am going to do.

One reason for the lack of selection and distribution of Portuguese wines in the US may be due to whatever is going on in Portugal, but more importantly it's the lack of education and demand for the wines here in the states. There is a generation of wine drinkers who got their start drinking white Zinfandel. Back then the refrain was the same, that it wasn't really wine and shouldn't be promoted. That is a myopic view that further reinforces the elitist image of the wine community.

Very few wine drinkers in the US spend more than $10 on a bottle of wine, the challenge is not getting them to buy the best wines of Portugal, the challenge is to get them to try any Portuguese wine. I have written int he past that i find some of Portugal's reds to be the best values in the world for people with an old world palate. Sadly I am seeing fewer Portuguese wines on our retail shelves, not more. I believe the best way to staunch the exodus is to get drinkers to try the Portuguese wines that are available to them, and then encourage them to explore. It's that simple.

As far as editorial independence, the only influence wineries or regions have is supplying me with samples. I review what I receive, and not always favorably. Any suggestion to the contrary is purely mistaken. You can disagree with me, I encourage that, but please do not impugn my integrity.

Not sold on your explanation.
You cannot call list those "wines" on a "not to be missed" list.
You simply can't.
At best, you can described them as "affordable and drinkable" entry "wines" (note the commas), but honestly, no one will credit Portugal as a serious wine nation by trying those wines and I don't think anyone will be curious about Portuguese wines after tasting them.
If you really want to be supportive of Portugal you should address ViniPortugal yourself and tell them that they should stop pushing industrial products from the major players who "handle them" and should promote the vast array of producers which are medium sized but big enough to ensure volume and a good price.
There are dozens of producers able to supply substantially better wines below the €4,00 (retail price in PT, so we are probably talking on or around €2.00 for distribution) bracket and with volume, which certainly would allow them to reach the US at a retail price below $10.00.